In general a print job is a transitory task that provides limited feedback, has little memory of the actual print process, and has limited options in terms of security. Currently, sharing information electronically is becoming increasingly prevalent. Yet the process of sharing information, especially if web-based, is more ad hoc in nature. What is needed is a more robust electronic sharing media type where output is optimized for web-based viewing.
The J2EE platform simplifies enterprise applications by basing them on standardized, modular components, by providing a complete set of services to those components, and by handling many details of application behavior automatically, without complex programming. The J2EE platform adds full support for Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) components, Java Servlets Application programming interface (API), Java Server Pages (JSP) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. The J2EE standard includes complete specifications and compliance tests to ensure portability of applications across a wide range of existing enterprise systems capable of supporting the J2EE platform. In addition, the J2EE specifications now ensure Web services interoperability through support for the Web Services-Interoperability (WS-I) Basic Profile.
The prior art provides an EJB based enterprise printing architecture for secured printing. Features of Enterprise Java Bean (EJB), Enterprise Printing Bean (EPB), JAVA, J2EE, and document authoring are combined to enable a robust enterprise printing architecture. A Java object encapsulates a print job specification and provides a framework enabling access control to print jobs as well as providing audit capabilities. Print control languages can be specified using methods provided by the Java object. Actual process implementation can be supplied via a server enabling another layer of security and control. A user wanting to securely print a job supplies appropriate credentials to the print job bean to gain access to the content and print server credentials allow printing of the print job. The EJB API is extendable to enable all of the J2EE capabilities found on standard EJBs to be applied to print Jobs. Further, a new Java API provides a more powerful page description language than that found in other printing languages.
Other methods provide a World Wide Web (WWW) formatting for program output through print functions. An application creates a source file that can be formatted for web viewing and transmits the source file to print driver program. The output of the program is formatted for viewing on the WWW in response to the selection for WWW format.
The prior methods can be complex and costly. As sharing information electronically is becoming increasingly prevalent, a need exists for a web publishing method with improved security and accessibility that is both simple and low cost. The present invention is described in the context of J2EE implementation and use of Enterprise Archive (EAR) file for packaging the web accessible content. The EAR format is portable, low cost, and extensible to provide basic Portable document format (PDF-like) functionality. This is an easy method of casual web publishing, simpler than converting content to a web friendly format and transferring the file to a repository that builds on the users' familiarity with the network print paradigm. It is anticipated that this functionality would be controlled via feature key, hence revenue generating.